Protocol Analysis: Studying Physical Manipulatives During Conceptual Design

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Hess ◽  
Joshua D. Summers
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Design ◽  
Protocol Analysis ◽  
Experimental Methods ◽  
Controlled Environment ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Physical Manipulatives ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior ◽  
Physical Elements ◽  
Protocol Study ◽  
Study Participants

This paper presents a protocol study that explores how individual designers interact with physical elements during mechanical concept ideation and exploration. This protocol study follows three participants individually in a controlled environment as they develop solutions to a presented problem. The goals of this work were 1) to develop a protocol for documenting human interactions with artifacts and 2) to use this protocol to investigate the use of prototypes during conceptual design. The protocol was used to document the actions of study participants in a manner that allowed searching for patterns of behavior. The most common patterns indicated that participants were learning or finding inspiration from the physical artifact interactions that were then applied to their design solutions. In addition, several opportunities for protocol and experimental methods improvements are presented.

scholarly journals Nonverbal Communication in Text-Based, Asynchronous Online Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rima Al Tawil
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Nonverbal Communication ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
Nonverbal Cues ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Study Participants

Does nonverbal communication exist in asynchronous, text-based online education? It is commonly believed that it does not due to the absence of body language and paralanguage. An examination of the definitions and forms of nonverbal cues suggests the possibility for some of them to be transmitted through asynchronous, text-based online human interactions. To explore the presence, type, and potential impact of electronic nonverbal cues (eNVC), I conducted this research using the Exploratory Sequential Mixed-Method Design. Phase 1 constituted the preliminary, qualitative stage of this research, during which participants completed an online questionnaire to identify what actions, if any, could speak louder than words in discussion-based courses. Thematic analysis of the questionnaire answers revealed the potential existence and influence of several eNVC categories. Phase 2 constituted the quantitative stage, and served to validate Phase 1 findings through the data collection and analysis of two versions of an online survey: one for professors and another for learners. The collated research findings confirmed that eNVC exist and communicate messages beyond those sent and received through printed words in the asynchronous, online learning environment. According to study participants, these types of electronic cues contributed to the social and teaching presences, and therefore carried the potential to influence students’ levels of engagement and motivation.  

scholarly journals The Role of Sketching Activities and Outcomes in Conceptual Design Phase

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 399-408
Author(s):  
Marija Nikolić ◽  
Stanko Škec ◽  
Tomislav Martinec ◽  
Nikola Horvat
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Design Phase ◽  
Verbal Explanation ◽  
Conceptual Design Phase ◽  
Essential Form ◽  
Protocol Study ◽  
Early Phases

AbstractSketching-related activities are considered as an essential form of communication in the early phases of a design process. In the presented study, it is argued that both the sketching and the sketch-related verbalisations are reflected in the level of elaboration of the sketching outputs. Hence, a protocol study was conducted to analyse the frequencies of different sketching-related activities during team conceptual design sessions and the associated levels of elaboration for each of the sketching outputs in the form of concept drawings. The results show that although teams generate sketches of various number, complexity and clarity, there exist commonalities across the studied experiment sessions. For example, teams share a pattern of developing solutions without transformations or using lateral transformations within the first part of the sessions and using vertical transformations to produce final concepts towards the end of the sessions. Moreover, teams used associated sketch elements to start drawing new sketches and then alternated to other activities, most of all verbal explanation, for the sake of elaboration and better understanding.

scholarly journals Systematic Generation of a 3D DSM by Extracting Social Robot Behaviors from Literature

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 3731-3740
Author(s):  
Ilayda Ozer ◽  
Zuhal Erden
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Design ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Design Methods ◽  
Social Robot ◽  
Direct Communication ◽  
Basic Model ◽  
Physical Elements ◽  
People Today

AbstractSocial robots are in direct communication and interaction with people, thus it is important to design these robots for different needs of individuals or small groups. This has revealed the need to develop design methods for personalized or mass-individualized social robots, which are expected to respond to many different needs of people today and in the future. In this paper, a previously developed 3D DSM model is implemented in the systematic conceptual design of social robot families. The model is independent of any physical elements and based on behavioural elements as perception, cognition and motoric action. The data regarding 45 different social robots from 80 articles in the literature is used to identify these three behaviours of the existing social robots and the mutual relationships among these different behaviours are defined in order to develop a 3D DSM structure to be used as a basis for designing social robot families. The resulting novel 3D DSM is a general-purpose, basic model that can be used to identify behavioural modules to design social robot families.

Experimental methods for environment and development economics

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARIAH D. EHMKE ◽  
JASON F. SHOGREN
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Experimental Economics ◽  
Experimental Methods ◽  
Test Theory ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Economics Experiments ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior ◽  
Environment And Development ◽  
Cycle Of Poverty

ABSTRACTMany poor countries remain trapped in a cycle of poverty and environmental degradation. Understanding how people react to existing and proposed solutions most likely can be improved using the methods of experimental economics. Experiments provide researchers a method to test theory, look for patterns of behavior, testbed economic institutions and incentives, and to educate people. Herein we explore how experimental economics has been used and could be used to help guide decision making to increase prosperity without overexploiting the resource base and environmental assets needed for basic survival.

Creative Stimulation in Conceptual Design

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oren Benami ◽  
Yan Jin
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cognitive Modeling ◽  
Protocol Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Creative Design ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
The Relationship

Conceptual design is a process of creating functions, forms and behaviors. Although cognitive processes are utilized in the development of new ideas, conventional methodologies do not take human cognition into account. However, it is conceivable that if one could determine how cognitive processes are stimulated, then more effective conceptual design methods could be developed. In this paper, we develop a Cognitive Model of Creative Conceptual Design to capture the relationship between the properties that stimulate cognitive processes and the design operations that facilitate cognitive processes. Through cognitive modeling, protocol analysis, and cognitive experiments, this research showed that designers exhibit patterns of creative design behavior, and that these patterns can be captured and instilled into the design process, to promote creativity.

Functional Analysis Diagrams With the Representation of Movement Transitions

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Szu-Hung Lee ◽  
Pingfei Jiang ◽  
Peter R. N. Childs ◽  
Keith Gilroy
Keyword(s):  
Functional Analysis ◽  
Conceptual Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Mechanical Design ◽  
Functional Requirements ◽  
Design Structure ◽  
Machine Elements ◽  
Physical Elements ◽  
Types Of Information

A study on utilising a graphical interface to represent movement transmission within products has been conducted to support a creative conceptual design process that separates the consideration of functional requirements and motion requirements. In engineering design, many representations of product structure have been proposed to assist in understanding how a design is constituted. However, most of these representations demonstrate only functions and are not able to demonstrate design structure. Functional Analysis Diagrams (FAD) provides a solution for this. An FAD shows not only functions but also physical elements by the network of blocks and arrows and thus it is capable of demonstrating various types of information and the design scheme. This characteristic gives FADs an advantage for designers to combine different types of information including useful and harmful interactions to gain an overview of the design task. This study focuses on using circles instead of arrows to represent movement attributes of mechanisms and machine elements in a Kinematic Functional Analysis Diagram (KFAD) and explores methods of utilising it in mechanical design. A commercial case study of medical equipment design conducted with the assistance of KFADs and a component database, mechanism and machine elements taxonomy (MMET), is described to illustrate the process. The design outcome shows that it is feasible to follow the proposed conceptual design process. With the help of KFADs and the machine elements taxonomy to enable consideration of movements, diverse considerations and design solutions are possible.

Function Modeling: A Modeling Behavior Analysis of Pause Patterns

2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Apurva Patel ◽  
William S. Kramer ◽  
Michelle Flynn ◽  
Joshua D. Summers ◽  
Marissa L. Shuffler
Keyword(s):  
Design Problem ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Protocol Analysis ◽  
Modeling Process ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
New Research ◽  
Protocol Study ◽  
Modeling Behavior ◽  
Novel Design

Abstract This paper presents a behavior-based protocol study conducted with mechanical engineering students, where the participants developed function–structure models for a novel design problem. A modeling activity video was recorded for each participant and coded using a protocol analysis that captured the modeling sequence, actions, and elements. Pauses in the modeling process were analyzed to identify patterns based on pause time and frequency, the distribution of pauses over the modeling activity, and events preceding and following the pauses. In this study, a pause is characterized as an interruption in the modeling process lasting at least 2 s. Participants were found to spend an average of 38% of the modeling time in pauses, with more of it being allotted to the middle of the modeling activity and less toward the start and end. Three pause types are defined (short, intermediate, and long pauses) based on an analysis of pause lengths, which are then used to analyze events before and after pauses. Participants added elements to the model more frequently, compared to editing and deleting elements. Longer pauses were observed before participants before elements are removed from the model, whereas editing was done more frequently after shorter pauses. Several modeling element pairs are identified that are infrequently separated by pauses, such as the “edge” and “edge text” pair, suggesting that the designer thinks about these as paired elements rather than distinct elements. Limitations of the research methods are discussed, and finally, new research questions are identified as continuing work for this research.

Exploring the Effect of Design Education on the Design Cognition of Mechanical Engineering Students

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher B. Williams ◽  
John Gero ◽  
Yoon Lee ◽  
Marie Paretti
Keyword(s):  
Design Education ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Protocol Analysis ◽  
Design Cognition ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Protocol Study ◽  
The Impact

In this paper, the authors report on progress of a longitudinal study on the impact of design education on students’ design thinking and practice. Using innovations in cognitive science and new methods of protocol analysis, the authors are working with engineering students to characterize their design cognition as they progress through engineering curricula. In this paper, the results from a protocol study of sophomore Mechanical Engineering students are presented. Specifically, data gathered from two experimental sessions (conducted before and after the students’ introductory design course) are analyzed to identify changes in design thinking cognition. Design cognition is determined using protocol analysis with the coding of the protocols based on a general design ontology, namely, the Function-Behavior-Structure (FBS) as a principled coding scheme (as opposed to an ad hoc one). Preliminary results indicate that statistically significant changes in students’ design cognition occur over the course of their sophomore year. The change manifests itself in an increase in focus on the purposes of designs being produced, which is often a precursor to the production a higher quality designs, and an increase in the design processes associated with the introduction of purposes of designs.

Function Modeling: An Analysis of Pause Patterns in Modeling Activities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Apurva Patel ◽  
William S. Kramer ◽  
Michelle Flynn ◽  
Joshua D. Summers ◽  
Marissa L. Shuffler
Keyword(s):  
Design Problem ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Protocol Analysis ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Structure Model ◽  
Modeling Process ◽  
Function Blocks ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Protocol Study ◽  
Novel Design

This paper presents a protocol study conducted with mechanical engineering students, where the participants developed a function structure model for a novel design problem. A modeling activity video was recorded for each participant and coded using a protocol analysis. Pauses in the modeling process were analyzed to identify patterns based on pause time and frequency, distribution of pauses over the modeling activity, events following the pauses, and elements added after pauses. Results show that participants used an average of 38% of the modeling time in pauses with a pause frequency of 41%. Moreover, participants were also found to spend more time in pauses during the second and third quarters of the modeling activity. Subsequently, an analysis of pause lengths revealed three different pause groups corresponding to short, intermediate, and long pauses. Participants added elements to the model significantly more frequently, compared to editing and deleting elements. Instances of deleting were found to be more likely to occur after longer pauses, whereas editing was done more frequently after shorter pauses. Participants paused more frequently before adding flows, and more frequent pauses were observed before labeling function compared to adding function blocks. The flows were found to be labeled after pauses infrequently. Finally, limitations of the study are discussed, and future research questions have been identified.

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